The discovery of any of the missing films of Victor Seastrom is an event. MGM managed to lose three. However JUDASPENGAR is an early work made before he became a world leader in his field on a small scale and without any of the flourishes that appear in the director's work as the films of Griffith circulated raising the film making game. The staging's most interesting feature is to use shots which show characters approaching through the window in the hut far wall.
The gloomy plot centres on the betrayal of the impoverished lead by his friend after a poaching accident. It is played out in forest settings in the Scandanavian manner. The acting is characteristically restrained.
